It is well known in the prior art to treat vascular disease with implantable stents and grafts. For example, it is well known in the art to interpose within a stenotic or occluded portion of an artery a stent capable of self-expanding or being balloon-expandable. Similarly, it is also well known in the prior art to use a graft or a stent graft to repair highly damaged or vulnerable portions of a vessel, particularly the aorta, thereby ensuring blood flow and reducing the risk of an aneurysm or rupture.
A more challenging situation occurs when it is desirable to use a stent, a graft or a stent graft at or around the intersection between a major artery (e.g., the abdominal aorta) and one or more intersecting arteries (e.g., the renal arteries). Use of single axial stents or grafts may effectively seal or block-off the blood flow to collateral organs such as the kidneys. U.S. Pat. No. 6,030,414 addresses such a situation, disclosing use of a stent graft having lateral openings for alignment with collateral blood flow passages extending from the primary vessel into which the stent graft is positioned. The lateral openings are pre-positioned within the stent based on identification of the relative positioning of the lateral vessels with which they are to be aligned. U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,548 discloses a multi-branch graft and a system for deploying it. Implantation of the graft is quite involved, requiring a discrete, balloon-deployable stent for securing each side branch of the graft within a designated branch artery. Additionally, a plurality of stylets is necessary to deliver the graft, occupying space within the vasculature and thereby making the system less adaptable for implantation into smaller vessels. Further, delivery of the graft and the stents requires access and exposure to each of the branch vessels into which the graft is to be placed by way of a secondary arteriotomy. These techniques, while effective, may be cumbersome and somewhat difficult to employ and execute, particularly where the implant site involves two or more vessels intersecting the primary vessel, all of which require engrafting.
The use of bifurcated stents for treating abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA) is well known in the art. These stents have been developed specifically to address the problems that arise in the treatment of vascular defects and or disease at or near the site of a bifurcation. The bifurcated stent is typically configured in a “pant” design which comprises a tubular body or trunk and two tubular legs. Examples of bifurcated stents are provided in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,723,004 and 5,755,735. Bifurcated stents may have either unitary or modular configurations in which the components of the stent are interconnected in situ. In particular, one or both of the leg extensions are attachable to a main tubular body. Although the delivery of modular systems is less difficult due to the smaller sizes of the components, it is difficult to align and interconnect the legs with the body lumen with enough precision to avoid any leakage. On the other hand, while unitary stents reduce the probability of leakage, their larger structure is often difficult to deliver to a treatment site having a constrained geometry.
While the conventional bifurcated stents have been used somewhat successfully in treating AAAs, they are not adaptable where the implant site is within the aortic arch. The arch region of the aorta is subject to very high blood flow and pressures which make it difficult to position a stent graft without stopping the heart and placing the patient on cardiopulmonary bypass. Moreover, even if the stent graft is able to be properly placed, it must be secured in a manner to endure the constant high blood flow, pressures, and shear forces it is subjected to over time in order to prevent it from migrating or leaking. Additionally, the aorta undergoes relatively significant changes (of about 7%) in its diameter due to vasodilation and vasorestriction. As such, if an aortic arch graft is not able to expand and contract to accommodate such changes, there may be an insufficient seal between the graft and the aortic wall, subjecting it to a risk of migration and/or leakage. Further, the complexity (e.g., highly curved) and variability of the anatomy of the aortic arch from person to person makes it a difficult location in which to place a stent graft. While the number of branch vessels originating from the arch is most commonly three, namely, the left subclavian artery, the left common carotid artery and the innominate artery, in some patients the number of branch vessels may be one, more commonly two and in some cases four, five or even six. Moreover, the spacing and angular orientation between the tributary vessels are variable from person to person.
In order to achieve alignment of a side branch stent or a lateral opening of the main stent with a branch vessel, a custom stent designed and manufactured according to each patient's unique geometrical constraints would be required. The measurements required to create a custom manufactured stent to fit the patient's unique vascular anatomy could be obtained using spiral tomography, computed tomography (CT), fluoroscopy, or other vascular imaging system. However, while such measurements and the associated manufacture of such a custom stent could be accomplished, it would be time consuming and expensive. Furthermore, for those patients who require immediate intervention involving the use of a stent, such a customized stent is impractical. In these situations it would be highly desirable to have a stent which is capable of adjustability in situ while being placed. It would likewise be highly desirable to have the degree of adjustability sufficient to allow for a discrete number of stents to be manufactured in advance and available to accommodate the required range of sizes and configurations encountered.
Another disadvantage of conventional stents and stent grafts is the limitations in adjusting the position of or subsequently retrieving the stent or stent-graft once it has been deployed. Often, while the stent is being deployed, the final location of the delivered stent is determined not to be optimal for achieving the desired therapeutic effect. During deployment of self-expanding stents, the mode of deployment is either to push the stent out of a delivery catheter, or more commonly to retract an outer sheath while holding the stent in a fixed location relative to the vasculature. In either case the distal end of the stent is not attached to the catheter and, as such, is able to freely expand to its maximum diameter and seal with the surrounding artery wall. While this self-expanding capability is advantageous in deploying the stent, it presents the user with a disadvantage when desiring to remove or reposition the stent. Some designs utilize a trigger wire(s) to retain the distal end of the stent selectively until such time as full deployment is desired and accomplished by releasing the “trigger” wire or tether wire(s). The limitation of this design is the lack of ability to reduce the diameter of the entire length of stent by stretching the stent which is pursed down on the distal end by the trigger wire. The significance of reducing the diameter of the stent while positioning and determining if it should be released from the tether wire is that the blood flow is occluded by the fully expanded main body of the stent even while the distal end is held from opening by the tether wire.
Another disadvantage of conventional stent-grafts is the temporary disruption in blood flow through the vessel. In the case of balloon deployable stents and stent-grafts, expansion of the balloon itself while deploying the stent or stent-graft causes disruption of blood flow through the vessel. Moreover, in certain applications, a separate balloon is used at a location distal to the distal end of the stent delivery catheter to actively block blood flow while the stent is being placed. In the case of self-expanding stent-grafts, the misplacement of a stent graft may be due to disruption of the arterial flow during deployment, requiring the placement of an additional stent-graft in an overlapping fashion to complete the repair of the vessel. Even without disruptions in flow, the strong momentum of the arterial blood flow can cause a partially opened stent-graft to be pushed downstream by the high-pressure pulsatile impact force of the blood entering the partially deployed stent graft.
Attempts have been made to address some of the above-described disadvantages of conventional stents and stent grafts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,099,548 discloses the use of strings passed through and attached to the distal end of the stent which is inserted through a first opening in the vasculature. The string ends are then passed through a second opening in the vasculature such that they can be pulled, thereby moving the stent within the vasculature. While the use of attached strings provides some additional control of the stent's placement, one skilled in the art can appreciate that passing strings from within the vasculature through a second opening presents procedural difficulties. Moreover, it is advantageous to the welfare of the patient to minimize the number of surgical openings when performing any procedure.
With the limitations of current stent grafts and stent graft placement technologies, there is clearly a need for an improved means and method for implanting a stent or graft and for treating vascular disease and conditions affecting interconnecting vessels (i.e., vascular trees) which address the drawbacks of the prior art.